Luisita farmers bracing for arrest
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 20, 2012

 TARLAC CITY—Farmers who occupied land inside Hacienda Luisita that is now owned by a bank are bracing for arrest as they refuse to leave the property and expressed defiance by serving their version of an eviction notice against the bank and the Cojuangcos, relatives of President Benigno Aquino who owned the 6,000-hectare sugar estate.

Insisting that the land belonged to them and not to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) that came to own it, farmers here installed a tarpaulin poster on the 184-hectare piece of property asking RCBC and the Cojuangcos to leave.

The farmers made the symbolic gesture after the Tarlac prosecutor’s office issued a resolution saying there was basis to charge the farmers with grave coercion and illegal occupation of property. The resolution came from the office of Liza Olinares, assistant Tarlac prosecutor.

RCBC, which bought the land from the firm that manages the hacienda, sued the farmers last year.

The Supreme Court, in a decision that ordered the distribution of land in the hacienda in compliance with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, removed the property from agrarian reform coverage and declared RCBC as a buyer in good faith.

Read full article @ newsinfo.inquirer.net